Surgical techniques for painful arthritic joints have evolved through various stages over the last three centuries. The methods have involved breaking the bones and realigning them to redistribute joint forces to the less affected section of the joint; inter-position of soft tissue in between the arthritic bone surfaces; removal of the arthritic joint; fusion of the joint to eliminate pain; partial and total joint replacement. The majority of the artificial joints for the different regions of the body involve a metal alloy articulating with a plastic or ceramic component. Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in metal-on-metal artificial hip replacement.
The major issues with most of the current materials include loosening of the components; wear-and-tear debris causing foreign body reactions; breakages of the components; ions released from the metal alloys. The metal alloys have a significant drawback because of relative stiffness as compared to bone in which they are implanted, which leads to loosening over a period of time necessitating revisions. There is a progressively diminishing bone stock with successive revisions.